NJ Transit has asked a federal judge to dismiss dozens of worker injury lawsuits filed under a federal law that has protected railroad employees for more than a century, but from which the agency claims it is immune.

The assertion puts its workers in a bind, potentially leaving them without any recourse for workplace injuries. Some fear that it could also make workers leery of reporting unsafe working conditions.

NJ Transit asserts that it enjoys "sovereign immunity" from lawsuits in federal court under the Eleventh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution because it is a state entity.

Those include lawsuits brought under the 1908 Federal Employers Liability Act, which protects railroad workers across the country, at commuter railroads, Amtrak and privately owned freight railroads such as CSX and Norfolk Southern.

Prior to its enactment, railroad employees had no legal recourse for workplace injuries. The law provides protections somewhat similar to the workers' compensation insurance that covers employees in other industries.

But citing the Third Circuit's ruling last month that NJ Transit had sovereign immunity, and throwing out the workplace injury award to Quitman Robinson of Morristown, the agency now maintains that the legal loophole applies to dozens of similar cases.

"Any and all such claims should be dismissed with prejudice," Grewal's office wrote Chief Judge Jose Linares of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

In the concourse of the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal at Liberty State Park, NJ Attorney General Gurbir Grewal addresses the media as he announces The Immigration Trust Directive as a program to promote building trust between law enforcement and immigrant communities. He is front of members of the New Jersey law enforcement community as they show support for his program. (Photo: Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com-USA Today Network)

NJ Transit's legal strategy could have a chilling effect on workers, who may be reluctant to report unsafe working conditions or sue for injuries, a panel of railroad labor officials and attorneys told a state Assembly committee in Trenton on Thursday.

"For the first time since its creation, the railroad is claiming it is not responsible for injuries it negligently causes its employees," said Ron Sabol, state legislative director for the transportation division of the Sheet Metal, Air and Rail Transportation Workers. "No other state in the U.S. has made a similar argument."

Though NJ Transit claimed in its letter to Linares that its employees can seek worker's compensation under state law, Sabol and others told lawmakers that's not the case.

"The answer is clearly no," said Larry Mann, a Washington labor attorney who drafted the Federal Railroad Safety Act of 1970.

Mann said the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 1917 case that railroad workers have no protections under state worker's compensation law because the Federal Employers Liability Act preempts it, he said.

"We have a situation where people are in no-man's land," said Assemblyman Dan Benson, D-Hamilton, the chairman of the Assembly Transportation and Independent Authorities Committee. "I think it’s a very dangerous situation."

The Attorney General's office and NJ Transit declined to comment.

Benson has sponsored a bill that would waive NJ Transit's sovereign immunity, enabling it to face lawsuits in federal court. The legislation has not yet moved out of committee.

"My hope is that we can get this up for a vote in the near future." he said. "We need to solve this problem now."

Bob Myers, a Philadelphia attorney who specializes in representing injured railroad workers, said federal laws have applied to NJ Transit from the day it took over the operation of the state's commuter rail network in 1983. Benson's bill, he said, simply maintains the status quo.

"We’re not asking for anything new or novel," he said. "It’s the same thing as every other railroad in the country."